Nigerian Oil Union Delays Strike, Extends Talks With Government

By Dulue Mbachu

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Nigeria’s white-collar oil workers’ union delayed a strike to protest abductions and attacks against its members in the Niger Delta while it continues talks with the government, the union said.

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, or Pengassan, had planned an indefinite strike starting today that might have put a halt to oil exports.

Members were told “to await further directives” while the discussions continue, Bayo Olowoshile, Pengassan general secretary, said in an e-mailed statement last night. A “directive shall be given on the next line of action after various scheduled meetings and consultations,” Olowoshile added.

Armed attacks and kidnappings and hijackings of vessels in the Niger Delta, which is home to Nigeria’s oil industry, have cut the African nation’s exports more than 20 percent since 2006. Nigeria is Africa’s leading oil producer and the fifth- biggest source of U.S. oil imports.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, the main armed group in the region, says it’s fighting for the region’s poor. Some armed groups engage in kidnapping for ransom.

The union decided to take action after gunmen shot dead an 11-year-old girl in the oil hub of Port Harcourt and abducted her 9-year-old brother last week. The two were the children of an employee of Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s local subsidiary.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dulue Mbachu in Lagos at dmbachu@bloomberg.net